Herrera blasts FIFA officiating

ESPN staff

Thursday, June 26, 2014

Despite his Mexico team qualifying for the round of 16, coach Miguel Herrera blasted FIFA's officiating thus far at the World Cup.

"I didn't say that they were doing it [bad calls] against us because we are CONCACAF. What I said is that we are seeing a lot of mistakes in our matches," Herrera said after Mexico's 3-1 win over Croatia. "We've watched the other matches between U.S., Costa Rica, Honduras, they haven't had these faults it doesn't mean that it is against the Confederation.

"It is against Mexico in our matches," Herrera said. "CONCACAF is growing. We are raising our hand to compete on equal footing. Refereeing, we have not seen that. Two out of three matches it has been overdone against us. Two goals that did not count [vs. Cameroon], these were clear goals and FIFA has already determined through the referees.

FIFA replaced the Colombian assistant referee whose incorrect offside decisions denied Mexico two goals in their 1-0 victory over Cameroon. The calls were made against El Tri striker Giovani dos Santos, who was onside each time, as TV replays showed. Mexico beat Cameroon with a goal late in the second half.

Replays showed dos Santos was behind the last defender when latching onto a cross to fire home. And then he was adjudged offside from a corner when the ball had flicked off the head of a Cameroon player.

"The assistant referee didn't have a good performance and left already," Herrera said in reference to the Colombian linesman. "And today two penalties and there's a corner kick and when one of them [Croatia players] touched it with the arm and that is why [Rafa] Marquez was cautioned.

"So these are plays that we see that are not fair, and it is against Mexico," Herrera said.